The Fremont Podcast
The only podcast dedicated to telling the stories of the people and places of Fremont, CA. The diversity and integration of people and cultures of Fremont truly makes it a special place. This podcast explores these stories.
The Fremont Podcast
Episode 131: Stephanie Uchida - The city, assigned.
Stephanie Uchida (内田) is the assignment editor for the Tri-City Voice newspaper. She edits submissions from the public and wrangles the free-lance reporters who write for the paper.
We chatted with Stephanie while sitting in the park at Lake Elizabeth (across the street from the Tri-City Voice office).
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Founder: Ricky B.
Intro and outro voice-overs made by Gary Williams.
Editor: Andrew Cavette.
Scheduling and pre-interviews by the amazing virtual assistant that you ought to hire, seriously, she's great: your.virtual.ace
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
Coming to you straight from Fremont, california. This is the Fremont Podcast, dedicated to telling the stories of the past and present of the people and places of the city of Fremont, one conversation at a time.
Speaker 2:I used to know your name, but my wife tells me that I don't know your name anymore.
Speaker 3:Can you tell me?
Speaker 2:who you are and where you work and what your job title is.
Speaker 3:Yes, I used to be Stephanie Gertz and now I'm Stephanie Uchida.
Speaker 2:Congratulations.
Speaker 3:Yes, as of September 28th Nice, so not that long ago, that's awesome, and where do you work and what do you do? Yes, I still work at Tri-City Voice. I'm the assignment editor, so I edit things that people send in. I wrangle the freelancers, I assign them to different things and help them troubleshoot when they run into issues, and I occasionally write stories for the paper myself as well.
Speaker 2:Correct me where I'm wrong, but I think the Tri-City Voice gets its news stories from two main places. One, things that people send in hey, this thing is about to happen, maybe you'd want to cover it and then also things that you go out hunting for. How do you go out and hunt for a story?
Speaker 3:It's changed recently because we were just taken over by Weeklys or we joined Weeklys. Like a happy transition and I had a lot of resources because originally Bill and Sharon's vision for the paper was that it would be about local events like arts and entertainment, local theater, local festivals, art galleries and things like that and those are somewhat regular and we kind of know when people are having their big shows like big festivals and events and things like that. So I had like all of that data to keep checking on regularly. That was a big help. But now for um, for weeklies, we're moving a little bit more towards local government stuff and things like that, so we're like a little bit more paying attention to what's coming up at city council meetings, for example, and other meetings, like the ones for the rus City Reparations Project and things like that.
Speaker 2:And for anyone who doesn't know what's the coverage area of the Tri-City Voice, I know it's quite large, but for people who don't read the paper regularly and don't look at the banner, what cities do you guys cover?
Speaker 3:For weeklies. We are going to focus more on the Tri, the Fremont, Newark, union, city of it all, but we're still covering events from Hayward and San Leandro, occasionally Oakland, especially with Oakland Zoo and Chabot Space and Science Center, and also a little bit from Milpitas and the unincorporated areas too, like Castor Valley.
Speaker 2:Anything. Like you said, castor valley, but also like cherryland and ashland and san lorenzo yeah, those are kind of. They're really close to hayward too, so like there's a lot of overlap tell me about, like the most um surprising story that you've worked on in the last year. That you worked on directly, because you mentioned at the top that your job mainly entails wrangling other people but that you also report on occasionally. Tell me about something in the last one or two years where you were really surprised by it that you worked on directly.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it's surprising, but one of the most enjoyable stories that I did was on this owl sculpture that students at Ohlone worked really hard on all semester and then the day after it went up someone smashed it and just completely destroyed it. It was like a couple years ago, like right after the spring semester ended.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's horrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was really sad and it's such a small story, but talking to the people who worked so hard on this and learning how they did it and then learning how they felt about it being destroyed. And then I got to do a follow-up six months later when they made a new owl and they resurrected their sculpture. And it's still there and I still go by it every time I'm at Ohlone for something Whereabouts on campus, is it? It's right outside the art building.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, Good or bad. What was your favorite story of 2024?
Speaker 3:2024. I had a lot of good stories. I liked working on the one about vaccines for the fall because I also had a lot of questions, so I could just ask all of my questions and say it was for my job.
Speaker 2:Isn't that the best part of this? Yes, you don't have to turn that filter on.
Speaker 3:Well, I have to be professional.
Speaker 2:You have to be professional, but you can just like I want to know and therefore I can ask.
Speaker 3:Yes, I can actually go and contact Washington Hospital and say can I please talk with the infectious disease expert? Because all this about the flu and the new COVID shots, the different types of COVID shots and the bird flu is really confusing me. Can she just sit down with me for like 30 minutes and tell me everything? And then they're like yes, yes, yes, we can arrange that. That's great. We'd love to be in the paper.
Speaker 2:Full disclosure. They are a huge sponsor.
Speaker 3:Yes, of your paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah they've been with us for a long time and if they would like to sponsor a local podcast. What story were you unable to tell? Uh, that you wish you could and I realized that, like you, were unable to tell it and therefore you are probably not able to tell me. But if there's any way to skirt around the edges of it, to talk in code, to give just a kind of bullet point summary, without getting into the details, if there's any way to tell that it existed but also admit there weren't enough sources or there wasn't enough time, et cetera, et cetera, I would love to know is there a story that you couldn't tell?
Speaker 3:yeah, there was one I worked on, but I felt like I just didn't. It was very complicated with a lot of details. I just like didn't have the time to quite put it all together in a way that would make sense for the paper. I was talking with Liz Ames of BART and it was about Quarry Lakes Parkway and whether this is a good thing for Union City or if it's going to just make Union City into a commuter town or a bedroom town.
Speaker 3:For people who don't know what is the Quarry Lakes Parkway it's a project to sort of oomph up the road that runs just north of Quarry Lakes Park and they actually there was a little farm there and they kind of had to get rid of that, like, put some development there and build the road there. They're still building it, but it's also kind of ends in a weird place, like it goes through the city and then just ends at the hills and there isn't a good highway through the hills it's 84 and that's kind of windy. So like this theory, like that we were working towards, was that this is making way for more development in the hills words was that this is making way for more development in the hills.
Speaker 2:What, um? What got in the way of the story not in the way of the development, but what got in the way of you reporting on that?
Speaker 3:well, it was a long interview so I was kind of like putting together the different things and like there's a lot of facets to such a big project as well. So just trying to get all those little details correct and also kind of fact checking what Liz Ames was telling me and going back through some documents she gave me about city council meetings and these are like this they have like 60 pages in these reports and it's so complicated and the projects have such like hardto-understand names as well, so it just felt overwhelming.
Speaker 2:Yeah shy of having a research staff dedicated research staff, a single reporter having to completely become an expert, essentially.
Speaker 3:Yes, in.
Speaker 2:Union City's financials over the last 20 years, written literally by experts whose job it is to write such documents, of which you are not.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes sense. I wanted to ask because you and I, when I did try to do a podcast for the Tri-City Voice, I wanted to work with the reporters and that never really took off. Uh, understandably, they are busy doing their own jobs and I was the new guy, but, uh, you were kind enough to uh give me the recordings that you were doing for a different story and those were lovely because you know I mean the. The sound quality was that of a phone, which is fine, it's a very slice of life.
Speaker 2:But it was great to hear. So I just wanted to ask, like on a personal level, all reporters have like different ways of going out and reporting and collecting. What is your method when you go out when you're not at the editor desk? When you go out, what is your method when you go out when you're not at the editor desk? When you go out, what is your method of of reporting?
Speaker 3:I mean, sometimes I get a lot of ideas just by going through our instagram because I can sort of visit, like oh, I wonder what they're doing over here. Like, oh, like, they have a video of this new thing they're working on. That's really, really cool. I'm going to reach out to them.
Speaker 2:And so a lot of your reporting happens from the desk, and when you go out to report on something the story I was mentioning before you were at the Castro Valley either the waste, it was during COVID and they were talking about toilet paper.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that's one of my favorite titles.
Speaker 2:Like what's your gear? What's your method of collecting, like you know? Is it recording everything and listening to it later? Is it bringing a notepad? Is it both? Is it some third thing? Is it some fourth thing?
Speaker 3:I usually just record on my phone, like if I'm going out to somewhere and it's just I'm meeting up with these people, they're telling me what they're working on, then I just like to have my phone out recording because I feel like I can stay in the moment and I'm not focusing on jotting little things down and because I think it's really hard to divide your attention that way. So this is me just recording on my phone, like I do when I'm talking to people for work.
Speaker 2:Okay, I will do the same. Thank you for playing along as the assignment editor. You mentioned that the majority of your job is wrangling the freelancers. What is one of your favorite things about working with a pool of reporters?
Speaker 3:One of the best things about working with reporters is just seeing what they come up with, even when it's something that I found and assigned out to them. Just seeing it come in and then noticing, oh, you had a really nice conversation, or wow, I didn't know that. I'm really glad that this information is getting out there and seeing their creativity that way. And it's even better when it's a story that they've pitched to me and it's already their passion and they go out and they take initiative and they pursue it and then I kind of get to help them get it out there to people and then I kind of get to help them get it out there to people and it's nice to be part of it.
Speaker 2:And tell me one negative thing about working with all of us.
Speaker 3:The hardest thing about working with freelancers is that I call it wrangling of cats. But a more negative way to put it is that I feel like the mom, because I'm not really their boss and they have other stuff going on and I need to be respectful of that. But then it also is a lot of kind of gently nudging people to do the things they're supposed to do, without coming off as a nag and kind of trying to hit that balance of okay, I am in charge of this, I have to make sure it runs smoothly, I have to maintain boundaries and standards, but also, you're adults and I'm not going to tell you guys what to do and lay down the law, because that's a bit too authoritarian.
Speaker 2:Please consider donating $1 a month on a reoccurring basis to help this podcast that you enjoy. Buymeacoffeecom. Slash the Fremont podcast. Slash membership. Do people like being asked questions?
Speaker 3:I think so. I think if you first ask them if they're open to being asked questions, that kind of narrows the field a little bit to people who actually do have time to talk and want to share about whatever they're doing. But I think you know everyone likes being asked questions about their passions, what they're really interested in and proud of. So I'm a very nice reporter. I don't try to do confrontation or gotcha questions. I just kind of try to make people feel comfortable and convey that I'm actually interested in what they have to say. So yeah, I don't know who doesn't like that.
Speaker 2:What got you into the job?
Speaker 3:I graduated from San Jose State with a master's in mass communications and I was doing a tutoring job. That was just part-time. I was looking for something else and my parents found an ad in Tri-City Voice because they read it and they were like, hey, steph, you should apply for this something else. And my parents found an ad in Tri-City Voice because they read it and they were like, hey, steph, you should apply for this. So I applied first as a freelancer writer and reporter, and they happened to be looking for someone to do editing a couple hours a week. So I eventually started doing that as well. And then, coincidentally, their previous assignment editor left for another opportunity. So they said you're already here. Do you want to be assignment editor? Left for another opportunity. So they said you're already here. Do you want to be assignment editor? Do you want to be the new her? And I was like, okay.
Speaker 2:How long ago was that? How long have you worked for the Tri-City Awards?
Speaker 3:Since 2019.
Speaker 2:What happens to a place let's say Fremont, that's the name of this podcast. But what happens to a place? Let's say Fremont that's the name of this podcast. But what happens to a place when there starts to become sort of a coverage desert, not really, but like the concept of a food desert, but like when all the media outlets are far away and you do have some and we have the Tri-City Voice, but like the other major newspaper that's owned by Bang, the Office is over the hill and all the TV stuff is up in the two cities the town and the city. Like what starts to happen in a place like this when the coverage isn't there. I mean, you guys do cover it, but you are one entity. You literally can't cover everything. So if all of the news coverage rests on the Tri-City voice and then depends on people coming to town from out of town, we're not going to get all the stories.
Speaker 3:It's not possible?
Speaker 2:What happens to a place when?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it is hard if you're not in the town, like experiencing just the day-to-day feeling of it, like how it feels to drive down the streets, like where you tend to go, like what things tend to happen. I guess it would be harder to actually have your finger on the pulse of what's actually important to the people living there.
Speaker 2:How was the ownership change for you? Like the Tri-City Voice is now owned by a different entity. Bill and Sharon have retired. You're still there. How was the changeover for you?
Speaker 3:It was very positive. I knew that Bill and Sharon wanted to retire. They needed to retire. They've given 20 years of their life to Tri-City Voice and they were in the office six days a week, basically around the year. They were in the office on Monday, holidays, finishing the paper when no one else was in the office. Um, it's a lot of work and they're not super young, so I was just very glad that they found a way to keep the paper going and I still have a job. Yeah, I'm very glad to not be out of a job.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you the Tri-City Voice runs on the massive amount of advertising that's in it. I'm assuming that's still roughly true with the new ownership. That's the business model. I've noticed that people really like hearing about local news. I've noticed that people really like hearing about local news but they've gotten maybe accustomed to not having to pay for it. And how do you personally interact with or feel about that dichotomy of there is not a lack of desire to hear about what's going on in town and then subscriptions are down across the country and everyone thinks that you can kind of get that news for free, and then they also complain like why don't we get coverage, that kind of stuff? What has been your interaction with that kind of dichotomy? I'm not really blaming people, it's. It's something we've been, you know, allowed to get accustomed to, to get these things free things, but it has come at a cost. What has been your relationship with that?
Speaker 3:yeah. For people not wanting to pay for news it's kind of yeah. It's hard when people are used to something being free to say oh, no, like this is in the you have to pay for it category. Now, and I think with news, especially if the sensational, clickbait, unreliable stuff is free and the actual news you have to pay for, then that can also be an issue.
Speaker 2:What did you like to do when you lived here? I mean, I know the move is somewhat recent, but what did you like to do in Frem do when you lived here? I mean, I know the move is somewhat recent, but what did you like to do in Fremont when you lived here?
Speaker 3:Yeah, fremont is Fremont's fun. I have to think about what I actually like to do, because I like to go to local restaurants, shopping. I feel like I don't have a lot of free time. I like walking at the lake. Actually, because we're at the lake, I was close enough that I could just walk over here after work in the evening when it wasn't so hot and just kind of vibe.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to think about the local places. I really liked aniki sushi. There's a lot of cute little restaurants like that. Oh, and I love megamart actually. Um, it's like the closest place to get the good asian sta I was. I really like Osaka market but it's down in Warm Springs so it's farther. I didn't go there as much, but if I just needed, like just needed some tofu, I just needed some kimchi, I needed some nori sheets because I'm making spam musubis or something. I want to get the Korean alcohol. It's so good. I want to get like just a big rice bag or like the really thin cut pork belly or pork shoulder. I can actually just go to a local place and get those and cook something. I don't have to go like all the way to Mitsuwa and San Jose.
Speaker 2:I have recently discovered that Osaka Market is very bikeable from BART, from Warm Springs Bright. It's a little bit. You have to be a little bit of a confident rider. There is a stretch and that intersection of like Warm Springs Boulevard and where you're about to get on 680 is is kind of scary.
Speaker 3:But if you just wait it out and wait your turn behind the semi trucks and I also like being really close to Paseo Padre because all the festivals happen there so I can just walk there and even to the downtown. It's a bit it was a bit further from me because I was on Gardino, okay, but it was still nice to not have to worry about parking for those events Just head out and like, oh okay, like here's where all the people are just going to hang out.
Speaker 2:This will air in a little bit and we will have already released by then. We will have already released an episode about the like, a concert series that was happening on the roof of the Asher which I think, if my streets are correct, it was nearby where you just said and apparently it's been canceled because the Asher's under the new management. But some people say that, like the downtown or the transportation-y part of downtown, like the near BART, is kind of dead because it serves a purpose, because it's there to have your house next to the transportation. But you're saying not so much.
Speaker 3:I mean, I hope not. I really like the efforts that Fremont's making to have a cute little downtown area near the hub and I think they are going to keep working on it. They're going to actually put housing like in one corner of the hub as well. I think that's the like, the Fremont plan, the Fremont development plan, whatever it is. But I think it would be great if we could have more shopping in that area, just more fun stuff to do and more like downtown housing so people can just live there and then walk over to Megamart, as I've done a few times, or walk over to the hub, walk over to the Target there and walk over to BART if they need to. Yeah, living next to BART was great too, because I didn't use it as much as I could have. But I remember I went up to Hayward for the Lit Hop and that was really fun because it was really close to the BART station and I could drink and not worry about driving back.
Speaker 2:Do you have any hobbies?
Speaker 3:Any hobbies. I like writing fiction in my spare time. I don't always have enough time to actually devote to that. I've been playing D&D. My husband is in the same group, so it's kind of fun. We're just hanging out with our friends.
Speaker 2:We had an episode not too long ago about the kind of tabletop games community here in Fremont and we kind of mentioned it on the episode. But I wanted to give credit where credit is due. We were only able to talk to a few of the shop owners and there are a lot more. It seems like that's a pretty strong community. I know D&D is one of many.
Speaker 3:It's very like let's put down our phones and use our imaginations and do something that's a little bit strategy-based and a little bit creative and performative, and I think people like different sides of it. So if you're very into like okay, like here's this problem and here's the skill set I have. How am I going to solve it, then like some people like D&D for that reason and some people like the idea of I can play this zany character and have fun with it and be silly.
Speaker 2:What can you recommend to people to do in Fremont?
Speaker 3:I might recommend hiking some unusual spots, even just around the lake. Just go and walk around the lake, it's really fun. I also like walking along Alameda Creek. Sometimes you can park in neighborhoods you probably shouldn't, but it's kind of like this weird like secret little spot and you can kind of go off and look at the different lakes. And, yeah, walking along the lakes and Niles too is really fun. Yeah, and I also really like Coyote Hills and Don Edwards. Yeah, mostly hiking stuff. I'd probably recommend like go out and do some hiking and just enjoy like the unusual natural landscape that like we've worked really hard to preserve in Fremont it feels like a big city, but then it feels so much less like a big city than when you get further north like Oakland and Berkeley.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think people should just enjoy it and then find an unusual little restaurant to go to. What does Fremont need to?
Speaker 3:improve? Hmm, that's a good question. I think people like sometimes like they do feel like it's less safe. You know, we could be better at housing people who need housing, because sometimes, like even around Tri-City Voice, like you see people who are just kind of hanging out outside. They don't quite look okay and they're probably just chilling, but then it is also a little bit like like are they reactive? Like you hope not, then you're not sure. So I think like there is an issue and people like don't feel safe for that reason.
Speaker 2:Have you ever not felt safe?
Speaker 3:I've once in a while, like usually, if someone you know is just kind of doing their thing, just chilling out, Um, I, you know, I just like um think that that's another person minding their own business.
Speaker 3:They may not have a place to go to, but they're not like paying attention to me. But once in a while, like there's someone like walking around, like kind of like weaving into people, kind of not like kind of shouting unpredictably, like sometimes, like I think once I was in the railies and like someone was just like weaving around and then like kind of coming close to me and saying something but not quite saying it to me and then weaving back. And sometimes I've gone out walking and people, guys want to pay me compliments and I'm like, okay, I don't know you, I'm hoping this is just a compliment and nothing else happens. So once in a while I feel like I'm not quite sure, like I hope this doesn't escalate and so far it never has for me, like no one's actually like started yelling or cussing at me or like actually gotten up in my space, but then it is like a little bit of an undercurrent of nervousness where you're not quite sure what the other person's thinking.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think we're going to wrap it up, but let me ask as long as it's been around the Tri-City Voice, and as free as it is and as many locations as it is plunked down, not everybody knows that it exists, so tell us why people should start reading the Tri-City Voice.
Speaker 3:You can learn so much about the people who are living here and the cool stuff that they're doing, and it's just really fun to read about.
Speaker 2:And it comes out on which days, how often.
Speaker 3:Comes out every Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Is there anything else that you wanted to say?
Speaker 3:Not really. I feel very lucky that I've had not only a job for the past five years but I've been working in my field and I think that's really difficult if you're not in a STEM field in the Bay Area. So I feel very fortunate that stars aligned and I started working there when I did.
Speaker 2:Well, with that, thank you. Thank you, thank for. Uh, I'll let you get back to your office, uh, which is just over. There we are sitting. We are sitting for the record. We are sitting at the park at the chess tables. Uh, it's nice there are people here. Uh, people should show up. Uh, you don't have to work at home when you work from home, that's true, come to the park. So. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it. I'll let you go.
Speaker 1:I'm Gary Williams. Andrew Kvet is the editor. Scheduling and pre-interviews by Sarah S. Be sure to subscribe wherever it is that you listen so you don't miss an episode. You can find everything we make, the podcast and all of our social media links at thefremontpodcastcom. Join us next week on the Fremont Podcast.
Speaker 3:This is a Muggins Media Podcast.